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the backstory of a teen going from Minneapolis to NYC to present a demo of which he had played all instruments was so intriguing to a fellow teen living a world away.

it's one of his less "critically acclaimed" records, but you couldn't convince the 12yr old in me! I wore that record out!

It was the 1:06 intro that burst into "In Love.". The first immortalized Prince minute: "For You" that symbolizes what he represents. Genius. But at the time we didn't know that yet- we just grooved, post-disco, to synthesizers driving a new awareness of libido, bravado, angst.

Thanks Prince Rogers Nelson for helping us get through our teens from "For You" to "Purple Rain!"

I pulled two quotes from articles which address our fascination with our ancestry. The articles are careful to note that this is by no means a new fascination- one can imagine that with improved access to information the process of finding ancestry is improved to the point that "family history research now ranks as the second largest and among the fastest-growing hobbies in the United States."

My interests goes further: I first took a realization of the different surname that we possess (Sam-Sin) when I moved to Suriname from The Netherlands as a 7-year old. Discovering that we had Chinese heritage and that my ancestor was known as Soong Sam Sin was an interesting mind-twist, but once I learned the history of Suriname in the schooling I received while there (age 7-14) things crystalized better and it made sense. The longer story here is how Suriname gained its diversity- through colonization and beyond, mostly for economic reasons; a discussion for perhaps another occasion.

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was granted to me via the generous commission of Asia Society Texas Center to travel to China, trace my ancestry, record the visuals and sonic landscape of what that journey entailed and then have the opportunity to create music and visuals to document this incredible expedition. The exhibition of this voyage and all it means to me, will happen on October 3, 2015 at Asia Society Texas Center, here in Houston. It will involve a new musical score created by yours truly and performed accompanied by the visuals from the trip. The video footage, captured by videographer Jasmine Lee Richardson (JLR), will be presented by JLR and Tim Steinke, through interactive video presentations.

Mark de Clive-Lowe, musician, composer, producer, first hit my radar in the late 90s through the means of Soular Grooves, a radio show I produced and hosted on KPFT for 20 years. His sound had a pure uniqueness to it and was to be classified as "broken beat."

Fast forward to 2013 when I released One Hundred: on my way to Los Angeles to promo the record I was referred to him for a potential booking at his monthly party, Church. It wasn't going to be a good fit, coming in to play as a DJ- as opposed to more of the "Live PA" or live musician set up.

It is Summer of 2015 and on a trip to NY I'm invited to join Nickodemus on his boat party which featured amongst the guest: Mark de Clive-Lowe.

I was introduced by Dave Winsett, in a former NY life known as DJ Swingsett. As Mark and I discovered that besides music we had two other things in common: we were both dedicated fathers and had Asian heritage in our ancestral charts (Mark is part Japanese, I have Chinese heritage).

It took two more quick communications to establish a booking date for him to play at The Flat: done! Mark brings his talents to Houston for the first time on Saturday July 18th.

Back to the boat party: after chatting it up for a good half hour, I witnessed his set on the Hudson as we passed by the Statue of Liberty and the NY skyline. His rendition of Soho's "Hot Music" was nothing short of stirring and moving. His set had me plotting a booking for Houston- the music lovers who attend The Flat for good music needed to be treated to another unique and quality experience: done!